I get there, it’s like: “This guy can’t process, he can’t read the defense. We’re gonna run him to death, we’re not gonna let him throw it that much.”
And I was having to face those same discriminations again that I had already dispelled all the way through college.
That was difficult to deal with, but I also learned you always have to be true to who you are. You know what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, and you cannot let the narrative change that for you.
He had to support the career of veteran players when he was only 22
A lot of guys say high school is the best football you’ll ever play. You grow up with these guys, there’s no business around it.
You go pro and it’s like, hey, what do you got? Well, I know what I had.
I had [veteran players] Santana Moss on my right, I had Chris Cooley on my left. I’m 22 and then they’ve got mouths to feed, so they don’t have time. They need you to be there right now, otherwise their livelihood and their jobs go by the wayside. That’s something I had to accommodate.
I was with London Fletcher, the NFL ironman. I think he started the most games consecutively ever. He had injuries, but he played through them, played through concussions, everything. He was my locker mate when I got to Washington, and I got to learn from a leadership standpoint of what you do and what [other players] care about.
They don’t care about the commercials, they don’t care about the cool swag, what car you’re driving. They want to know when you get on the field, can you help me feed my family.
And that’s the difference when you get to that level…I navigated it the best way that I could.
He’s sought to redefine his career and keep others from making his mistakes
I know I’m one of the biggest what-if stories in NFL history.
But I didn’t want to be a what-if, so I picked up the pen and I started writing my story. [Editor’s note: RGIII had planned an explosive tell-all book called Surviving Washington that was scrapped in 2022, for reasons that vary depending on which report you read].
I’ve leaned on my family and I’ve leaned on my faith to help get me to this point to where I don’t look back on that with anger in my heart…
Being a Black quarterback is something that I truly take pride in, knowing that I opened the door for other guys, and got the opportunity in 2018 to actually mentor Lamar Jackson as his backup quarterback with the Baltimore Ravens for three years. I don’t ever take credit for anything that anyone else does, but I think being able to show him the mistakes that I made along the way allowed him to become a two-time MVP and be the QB that he is—and stay healthy, and know when to stay on the field and when to get off.
